dent of this month-old collective of medical marijuana
patients. His wife Jocelyn is the secretary. Shane likes the
comparison of the shop to a medical facility, because, in
his opinion, it is one.
“We’re just trying to help people,” he said. Also, “We’re
really just trying to take
the Cheech and Chong
appeal out of it.”
The Kind Alternative
is a non-profit collective
of patients growing their
own cannabis for medicinal use, as allowed since
1998 under a Washington
Shane, president, The Kind state law, RCW 69.51A.
Alternative marijuana collective It also provides medical marijuana to other
patients for medicinal
needs, an activity that the law isn’t exactly clear on.
“The guidelines are very vague,” said Shane. “You
know, the people of Washington voted this thing through
13 years ago and it still has so many gray areas....”

Mount Si High School’s search for
a principal to replace retiring Randy
Taylor will include input from students, parents, school staff, and the
general community.
School Curriculum Director Don
McConkey updated the Snoqualmie
Valley School District Board on the
process at its March 24 meeting. For
the search, he is creating a profile for
the next principal, based on feedback
from students, staff and parents. A
Web survey was also used to gather
community input on the issue.
McConkey said that the student
interviews were “spectacular,” and
about 600 people viewed the online
survey. About 300 people submitted responses, and a little over half
were parents of students at Mount Si.
Northwest Leadership Association,
a recruiting firm the district hired
to help narrow the list of applicants,
will use the profile to actively recruit
candidates.
McConkey also said the position
was posted online March 23 and
within 24 hours, it had been viewed
300 times, and seven applicants had
already requested paperwork.
The posting closes April 25, and
applicants will be screened through
April 29.

SEE MARIJUANA, 8

SEE SEARCH, 2

Seth Truscott/Staff Photo

Mount Si track
team throws
down versus
Bellevue High
in home opener
Page 21

Inside, it’s a small, windowless space with a computer,
a dog crate, and a couple of display cases. Inside the dog
crate is a restless bulldog. Inside the cases are cannabis
candies, capsules, cigarettes, lotions, and jar upon jar of
dried marijuana flowers, or bud. A large sculpture of a
seven-lobed leaf is mounted on the wall, and there’s a
distinctive scent in the air.
Step out into the public area, and it’s plain and white,
with floor-length curtains, potted citrus plants, a few
chairs and some magazines. It looks like a doctor’s waiting
room, except for the old arcade game in the corner, and
the copies of “High Times” on the magazine rack.
“This is how it should be, a nice clean environment,”
said Shane, sitting in the waiting room of The Kind
Alternative in Preston. “Everything’s clean, professional,
discreet.”
Shane, who declined to give his full name, is presi-

“We’re really
just trying to take
the Cheech and
Chong appeal
out of it.”

Above a display case containing dozens of jars of marijuana buds and sample specimens, Shane, president of The
Kind Alternative medical marijuana collective in Preston, holds a copy of the shop’s state license. “I don’t feel we’re
doing anything but good for people,” said the former Valley resident, who declined to publish his last name.

8 • March 30, 2011 • Snoqualmie Valley Record

MARIJUANA FROM 1
North Bend Police Chief
Mark Toner disagrees.
“The law is not really as
vague as people make it out to
be. The interpretation of it is
what’s being debated,” he said.
According to the law, a person growing medical marijuana for his or her own use,
as recommended by a doctor,
is safe from prosecution. So is
a designated provider, growing
the drug for one legal patient.
The Kind Alternative, a patient
collective serving many qualifying patients, but one at a time,
may not be.
“Dispensaries are illegal,”
says state Department of Health
spokesperson Donn Moyer.
“Co-ops are also illegal,” and so
not subject to state oversight or
reporting requirements.
Volunteers and supporters of
The Kind Alternative emphasize that the organization is neither a dispensary nor a co-op.
“It’s a collective of patients
run for patients by patients, so

it’s a little different,” said Shane.
Chief Toner believes the
one-patient-at-a-time condition skirts the 1998 law, which
specifically refers to “humanitarian compassion” for patients’
“personal, individual decision.”
“We look at the intent,” Toner
said, and “the intent is to allow
folks to help each other out,” by
providing medical cannabis for
a friend or neighbor who simply can’t grow their own.
That’s exactly what the people at The Kind Alternative
feel they’re trying to do, while
strictly conforming to the letter of the law. All of the products available at the shop are
produced and donated by the
dozen collective members,
from any cannabis they have in
excess of the 60-day supply they
are legally allowed as patients
themselves. Nothing is sold to
or by The Kind Alternative,
which is a federal law.
State law, though, is problematic. King County Sheriff’s
Deputy Dave Hoag, who serves
all eastern King County including Preston, sees several chal-

PUBLIC NOTICES

PUBLIC NOTICE #473741
Legal Notice
City Of Snoqualmie
King County,
Washington 98065
Notice Is Hereby Given That the
Snoqualmie City Council, on the
28th day of March 2011 passed
The Following Ordinance:
Ordinance No. 1077
Ordinance relating to contracting
indebtedness; providing for the
issuance of a $2,000,000 par
value Limited Tax General
Obligation Bond, 2011A (City
Hall) for general City purposes to
provide funds with which to
repay and redeem the City’s
Limited Tax General Obligation
Bond Anticipation Note, 2009,
and to pay the costs of issuance
of the Bond; fixing the date,
form, maturity, interest rates,
terms and covenants of the bond;
establishing a bond redemption
fund; and approving the sale and
providing for the delivery of the
bond to Cashmere Valley Bank.
Copies of this Ordinance in
complete text are available at the
City Hall located at 38624 SE
River Street between 9 AM and 5
PM, Monday through Friday, on
the city website www.ci.snoqualmie.wa.us , or by calling the City
Clerk at 425-888-1555 x 1118.
Matthew R. Larson, Mayor
ATTEST: Jodi Warren,
MMC City Clerk
Publish/Post : 3/30/2011
Effective Date: 4/5/2011
Published in the Snoqualmie
Valley Record on March 30,
2011.
PUBLIC NOTICE #474298
NOTICE OF APPLICATION
FOR SHORELINE
SUBSTANTIAL
DEVELOPMENT PERMIT
PROJECT: Snoqualmie
Veteran’s Memorial
Application #: SH 11-01
Applicant: Snoqualmie Valley
Historical Museum/
Veteran’s Memorial
Property Owner:
City of Snoqualmie
Submittal Date: March 22, 2011
Date Complete: March 22, 2011
Notice of Application:
Published and posted March 30

and April 6, 2011
Project Description:Application
SH 11-01 is for a Shoreline
Permit pursuant to the Snoqualmie Shoreline Master Program
for the development of a vacant
lot located at 38625 SE River
Street in Snoqualmie for a veteran’s memorial.The proposed
improvements include a granite
monument tablet, a low stone
wall, seven flag poles, a gravel
plaza and native vegetation.
Other required permits and
approvals include, but are not
limited to, Design Review, building permit, clearing and grading
permit and a flood improvement
permit.
Project Location: The proposed
project is located at 38625
SE
River
Street,
parcel
#7849202475, Snoqualmie.
Public Testimony: Any person
may submit written testimony on
the above application. Notification and request of written
decision may be made by submitting your name and address to
the Planning Department with
that request. Written comments
should be submitted to the City
of Snoqualmie, P.O. Box 987,
Snoqualmie, Washington 98065,
attention: Gwyn Berry and must
be received on or before May 5,
2011. Only a person or agency
that submits written testimony to
the
Shoreline Administrator/
Planning Official may appeal the
decision.
Application Documents:
The
application and all supporting
materials are available for public
inspection at the City of Snoqualmie Planning Department, 38624
SE River St, Snoqualmie,
Washington.
Published in the Snoqualmie
Valley Record on March 30,
2011.

To place a Legal
Notice, please call
253-234-3506 or e-mail
legals@
reporternewspapers.com

www.valleyrecord.com

lenges with it, for both patients
and law enforcement.
“You have the state RCW
that makes it legal to use medial marijuana,” he said, but the
requirement for patients to produce their own drug “creates
a problem for legitimate users
because not everybody can
grow it.” Aside from the space
requirements, Hoag noted that
growing the plants takes time,
and the legitimate patients who
may be helped by the drug have
to wait for the plants to mature,
just like anyone else, since sales
are illegal.

Legal amount?
In 2007, the Department of
Health set amounts for what
constitutes the 60-day supply
allowed by law—15 plants, and
24 ounces of ready-to-use cannabis. It should have clarified
the original law, but both Hoag
and Moyer feel it has weaknesses. Hoag says the qualification that it’s “a presumptive
amount” puts the burden of
judgment on law officers.
Moyer is not entirely happy
with the determination either,
despite “months and months
and months of research and
testimony... the fact is, there’s
not a lot of good science on
this topic.”
Finally, Hoag feels that a lack
of direction from government
officials further complicates
enforcement of the law, and he’s
in the majority.
“The whole state law is
such a pain for us to enforce,
and that’s on the record,” said
Sheriff’s Deputy and spokesperson John Urquhart. “Sheriff
Rahr has been really clear that
this law needs to be fixed.”
Urquhart added that until the
government offers more direction on what is and isn’t legal
for medical marijuana suppliers, “We’re not going to ignore
them, but they aren’t very high
on our list, because the law is
unclear.”
Meanwhile, The Kind
Alternative remains clear in its
mission.
“I don’t feel we’re doing
anything but good for people,”
Shane said.
Before he and Jocelyn decided to commit themselves to
this effort, he said, “I just kept
hearing over and over the need
for some kind of establishment
out here, from people in the
Valley to people on the other
side of the mountains.... there’s
a lot of need out here, serious
need, too.”
Since opening, Shane says
he’s had many people, some not
even patients, thank him for his
work at The Kind Alternative.
Even before opening, Jocelyn
said they found a welcoming
environment, from both their
neighboring tenants and their
landlord.
“We were very open with
him about what we were doing,”
Jocelyn said.
So far, only one person has

been outspokenly opposed to
the facility, “and that person
just needed to be educated,”
Shane said. “They thought we
were after their kid, which we’re
not.”
State law dictates that only
Washington residents age 18
or older, with a written recommendation to try medical marijuana can legally use
it. To ensure they are dealing
with legitimate patients only,
Shane says, staff members at
The Kind Alternative make a
copy of the patient’s ID and
doctor recommendation, then
“we call the doctor’s office and
actually verify with the doctor
that they are a current patient...
We’ve had a lot of people in that
we turned away because they
couldn’t provide proper paperwork, proper documentation.”
Only after a patient is validated by all legal requirements
can he or she be admitted to the
back room, with the products.
After making their selections,
patients offer a donation to
cover the costs of their product.
Sales are illegal by federal law,
points out Phil, a volunteer at
the shop, so all exchanges are
by donation.
Phil is not a member of The
Kind Alternative collective, but
he does visit the shop several
times a week from his home
on the Olympic peninsula to
“help out, help with the donations, help to stock the shelves,
educate patients,” he said.
Education is the most
important part of his work,
he said. It includes informing
people about the collective and
the process for using it, how to
request a doctor recommendation or locate a doctor willing
to recommend the drug, and
even on the potential benefits
of using cannabis medicinally.
“There’s a lot of people that
don’t know. They just know
that nothing else is working,”
he said.

Health effects
As a cancer survivor, Phil has
received many of the drugs that
make up the group of “nothing
else,” and they didn’t work for
him, either. “Pharmaceuticals
take a very big toll on the body,”
he said, and each one had a side
effect that his doctors would
prescribe another drug to suppress.
Shane had a similar story,
about his mother-in-law who
survived cancer only to die
from the effects of her treatment. “Jocelyn’s mom was in
remission... She died of liver
and kidney failure from all the
drugs they had her on,” he said.
Phil’s story went on. About
six months into his two-year
cancer treatment, he tried
medicinal marijuana. It didn’t
have such debilitating side
effects, or any side effects in
his recollection, and that is one
of the main reasons that both
men are so passionate about
making this controversial

choice available in the Valley.
“The doctors who prescribe
medical marijuana, their biggest goal in prescribing it is getting people off narcotics,” said
Phil.
Of the people who are
strongly opposed to medicinal
use of this drug, Shane says, “if
they are really in that kind of
stance, they’re really not aware
of what’s going on in their community, because this place is in
an absolute epidemic of prescription drugs, methamphetamines, heroin.”
On that point, law enforcement agrees. People are escalating their drug use to more
potent, harmful drugs.
“I’ve never seen so much
heroin (as today) in my 20
years of law enforcement,” said
Hoag.
Toner fears that the wider
availability of a once-illegal
drug can desensitize people to
the dangers.
“Look at prescription drugs in
general,” he said. “They’re a huge
scourge right now, for the kids
especially, because people think
‘oh, it’s not harmful... it’s from
the medicine cabinet. We know
people are dying from that.”

Security concerns
For Toner, though, the main
concern is the crime that tends
to come with a medical marijuana facility.
“I’ve talked to other police
chiefs throughout the area,
some from California and one
from Colorado, who’ve had
these things, and every single
chief that I’ve spoken to that has
had them for any period of time,
says they are crime magnets,”
Toner said.
It’s not that the facilities are
breaking the law, though, it’s
the community around them.
“People are getting robbed coming in or going out... you’ve
either got cash coming in, or
dope going out, so you’re now a
target,” he said.
Production areas are no
safer. Toner said a marijuana
grower could be more likely to
be robbed or murdered, since
the criminal won’t know or
care whether the drug is being
grown legally as medicine or
not, and will assume it’s an illegal
grow whose owner won’t report
a robbery to police.
“If I had a next-door neighbor
that was growing it for medical
purposes, I would be worried
about it, just being that close to
it,” Toner said.
His concerns were enough
to discourage at least one North
Bend resident from opening his
own medical marijuana facility.
Toner said the man had come to
him to discuss all the legal implications of such a business, but
changed his mind after hearing
about the risks he’d be taking
with illegal users.
The Kind Alternative is also
concerned about security, and
so does not discuss where its
products are grown and manu-

What is medical
marijuana?
Marijuana, or cannabis, is an
illegal substance under federal law. Even people who use
it for medicinal purposes in
Washington State are subject
to arrest by federal authorities, so what is the point of
legalizing it?
According to RCW 69.51A,
“Humanitarian compassion
necessitates that the decision to authorize the medical
use of marijuana by patients
with terminal or debilitating illnesses is a personal,
individual decision, based
upon their health care professional’s professional medical
judgment and discretion.”
Currently, the law specifies
the conditions and symptoms
for which medical marijuana
can be used to be recurring
pain, nausea, seizures, appetite loss and fatigue caused
by cancer, HIV, multiple
sclerosis, epilepsy and other
seizure disorders, glaucoma,
Crohn’s Disease, Hepatitis C,
anorexia, and spasticity. New
conditions can be added to
the law by petitioning the
State Department of Health
(www.doh.wa.gov). The
department’s Medical Quality
Assurance Commission and
Osteopathic Board will review
each petition and rule on it.

factured. The collective takes
several steps to ensure the safety
of the building, its occupants
and contents.
“I have a full-time security
volunteer,” Shane said. “There’s
no medicine or anything of
value left overnight, but they can
steal my lemon tree, if they want
it,” referring to the plant in the
only publicly-accessible part of
the shop.
Shane has done his own
research and found “in the places that these pop up, statistics
have shown that the crime rates
have actually dropped.... because
the police now have more time
to focus on true crimes, like for
robberies or assaults.”
In its first month of operation, The Kind Alternative
hasn’t experienced any crime
problems yet. Depending on
how several bills clarifying
medical marijuana law progress through the state legislature
this session, it might not ever.
Bills under review would
either legalize marijuana entirely and levy taxes against users,
or create registries of users, providers, and doctors who recommend the drug, under the
oversight of the Departments
of Health and Agriculture.
Shane wouldn’t be disappointed if the new medicinal
marijuana bills were adopted,
“As long as the people can have
a say in it... On a personal level,
I wouldn’t want the government
controlling my medicine.”